- The following roles have had `Watch` added to them (prefixed with `system:controller:`):
  
  - `cronjob-controller`
  - `endpoint-controller`
  - `endpointslice-controller`
  - `endpointslicemirroring-controller`
  - `horizontal-pod-autoscaler`
  - `node-controller`
  - `pod-garbage-collector`

- Kube-apiserver: Defaulted empty `spec.jobTemplate.spec.podFailurePolicy.rules[*].onPodConditions[*].status` fields for CronJob objects as documented, avoiding validation failures during write requests. ([#131525](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/131525), [@carlory](https://github.com/carlory))

* change AddEventHandlerWithResyncPeriod to AddEventHandler in factory.go ([#51582](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/51582), [@jiulongzaitian](https://github.com/jiulongzaitian))
* Validate that cronjob names are 52 characters or less ([#52733](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/52733), [@julia-stripe](https://github.com/julia-stripe))

- Fixed a bug due to which the controller was not populating the `lastSuccessfulTime` field added to `cronjob.status` in `batch/v1`. ([#102642](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/102642), [@alaypatel07](https://github.com/alaypatel07))

- Dropped the additional rule requirement (cronjobs/finalizers) for roles
  using kubectl create cronjobs to ensure backward compatibility. ([#124883](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/124883), [@ardaguclu](https://github.com/ardaguclu))

* Scheduler only activates unschedulable pods if node's scheduling related properties change. ([#71551](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/71551), [@mlmhl](https://github.com/mlmhl))
* Fixes pod deletion when cleaning old cronjobs ([#71802](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/71802), [@soltysh](https://github.com/soltysh))